Pirates season has been an emotional roller coaster thus far.
ECU Pirates hosted their first game of the 2015 season against Towson. Chris Hairston had a break through game. He literally managed to bust through Towsons defensive line scoring all four touchdowns for the Pirates that game! Pirates won 28-20.
They took the second game on the road all the way to Gainesville, Florida to take on the Gators. After our first week, the Gators obviously studied our tapes and seemed to be on to our running game, limiting what Hairston could do on the ground. So the Pirates had to utilize their receivers. Junior wide-outs Isaiah Jones and Davon Grayson both had their first touchdowns of the season as well as senior tight-end Bryce Williams.
The Pirates put up a hard fight, quarterback Blake Kemp threw for 333 yards and 3 touchdowns. But a pick-six late in the third quarter seemed to be the game changer. The Pirates ended up losing the game 31-24…sadly just by a touchdown
Another away game, Navy was next up on the Pirates list. I don’t know if it was lost momentum from the week before but our Pirates just couldn’t get a hold of this game. Pirates took the “L” on another road game losing 45-21.
Dowdy Ficklen welcomed the Pirates back home for their most recent home game against the ACC’s Virginia Tech Hokies. You could just tell by the atmosphere of the crowd and the energy of the boys being at home, that this was going to be a good game!
The start of the game wasn’t looking too bright for the Pirates but once the rain came the Pirates kicked it in gear. And who said rain was an obstacle? QB Blake Kemp was the first Pirate to score and wide-out Trevon Brown was welcomed back with a touchdown shortly thereafter.
In the second quarter the Pirates mixed things up a bit and put in QB James Summers, a junior transfer, and boy did he show up to play! He played so well that he was named the game MVP. The Hokies didn’t know what to do with the running game Summers brought with him.Summers scored 2 rushing touchdowns and hit Isaiah Jones for an outstanding one handed catch for a touchdown, leading to the Pirates 35-28 win !
Pirates will hit the road again heading to the lone star state this weekend facing SMU. Hopefully the confidence from the previous game will carry through on into Texas and they will not fall into an away game curse this season.
